My Dream (I promise this won't be a habit.)
Last night I dreamed I was a Japanese salaryman, living by myself in a large two story house, and all the light bulbs kept failing. As soon as I screwed one in it would short out, and I was starting to get scared. I went upstairs to see if I could find some part of the house with light, and found a duplicate of myself lying face down on some nail-studded boards, awkwardly trying to wield a hammer. I've never dreamed of myself as Japanese before; the vibe here was distinctly Tetsuo the Iron Man meets Waiting for Godot. Weird. After I woke up, I got online and ordered a VHS copy of Tetsuo, but mostly because I want to own Greg Nickson's incomparable "Drum Struck" video, which is on the Fox/Lorber tape (the dream reminded me I've been meaning to do this).
I have been thinking a lot about going to Japan, though. One thing I want to do is visit the west coast (Akita or Yamagata) so I can eat hatahata. I found out about this from an episode of Patlabor: Mobile Police, where Captain Gotoh dispatches Izumi and Shinohara to Sakata (in Yamagata) for a mission and asks them to bring back a package of these fish as a souvenir, or "miyage." (see Anime Companion Supplement). "Where's my hatahata?" becomes a running joke in the show. At the end the crew has boiled his hatahata in a soup-pot and appears to be eating without him. I do not get the ending of that episode.
Update, 2013: Drumstruck is on Greg Nickson's vimeo.
You said "I screwed one in".
Post your dreams and take your chances.
JOE
I know. There's a scene in Tetsuo with a giant screw--drill more like--that does something...not very nice. Also, the hammer=Tetsuo II: Body Hammer. Oh, never mind. Did you guys make it to Yamagata?
This is a little boring but...
In Japanese society, the work environment is about smoothness--and at all costs keeping a cool even head so things go well. Sometimes to keep things smooth it takes incredible tolerance and perseverence, which is released after working hours with food and drink--kind of a symbol of a time where honesty of feelings can be let off, usually through humor. It's a recuperating time. Everyone is at ease and often complains about the unreal demands made of them during a working day. This all takes place without the boss. You could say, the twist here is enjoying or reaping the benefits of the tasks demanded of them by their demanding boss, which were intended, or are sometimes felt to be only beneficial to boss. Everyone can laugh at this--
The Floorboards coming unstuck sounds like a breaking of a stereotype.
A friend from SF mailed this to me today--anyone get the ending?
"I saw this Japanese film (subtitled) yesterday called The Suicide Club. I think something was lost in translation because the ending didn't make a whole lot of sense to me."
So much for ends.
Tom, you should head on over here--I'm sure you would enjoy.
b
I don't remember that drill but I'll bet it was like some kind of ... cosmic ,,,, rebirth - along with pretty much everything else in that movie
Joe: A glib Tetsuo summary is here, so I don't have to describe...the drill.
b: Many thanks--that's very helpful! I think what confused me is that Gotoh is such a cool, sympathetic character. He looks like Humphrey Bogart and always has a smart solution for everything. But of course, he's also the Boss and puts insane demands on the crew. With that in mind, their eating his "souvenir" is funny. After all, he wasn't the one who went to Sakata and risked death.
One of the things I love about the series is the "coolness, tolerance and perserverence" the characters show on the job, while in their off hours they're all really emotional: Izumi is childish and fixated on her lost dog, Otah is a rage-oholic gun nut, another character is a henpecked husband. Somehow, each episode, they have to pull it together and perform some really complicated task involving "big" technology that requires superhuman reflexes and calm nerves. I think a lot of this applies to the work-world in the States, but without the intricate "how-to" you get in Patlabor, showing how the machines actually function. The closest you might come here would be a spy show like Mission Impossible, with its gadgetry obsession, but then in that series you never saw a flawed Barney or Rollin Hand partying after hours and bitching about Jim Phelps.
Another thing I learned about the crew eating Gotoh's hatahata: In one of the earliest episodes, Shinohara explains that food, and food preparation, is kind of a fetish for the Patlabor crew. Their base is on a remote landfill on Tokyo Bay, and it's 45 minutes to the nearest convenience store, and even further to an actual grocery store. Thus, Hiromi grows tomatoes, the mechanics catch fish in the bay, and communal eating and cooking help pass the many boring hours between assignments. Against this backdrop, no way the sudden appearance of a box of hatahata wasn't going to get jumped on by all.
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My Dream (I promise this won't be a habit.)
Last night I dreamed I was a Japanese salaryman, living by myself in a large two story house, and all the light bulbs kept failing. As soon as I screwed one in it would short out, and I was starting to get scared. I went upstairs to see if I could find some part of the house with light, and found a duplicate of myself lying face down on some nail-studded boards, awkwardly trying to wield a hammer. I've never dreamed of myself as Japanese before; the vibe here was distinctly Tetsuo the Iron Man meets Waiting for Godot. Weird. After I woke up, I got online and ordered a VHS copy of Tetsuo, but mostly because I want to own Greg Nickson's incomparable "Drum Struck" video, which is on the Fox/Lorber tape (the dream reminded me I've been meaning to do this).
I have been thinking a lot about going to Japan, though. One thing I want to do is visit the west coast (Akita or Yamagata) so I can eat hatahata. I found out about this from an episode of Patlabor: Mobile Police, where Captain Gotoh dispatches Izumi and Shinohara to Sakata (in Yamagata) for a mission and asks them to bring back a package of these fish as a souvenir, or "miyage." (see Anime Companion Supplement). "Where's my hatahata?" becomes a running joke in the show. At the end the crew has boiled his hatahata in a soup-pot and appears to be eating without him. I do not get the ending of that episode.
Update, 2013: Drumstruck is on Greg Nickson's vimeo.
- tom moody 11-24-2003 1:57 am
You said "I screwed one in".
Post your dreams and take your chances.
JOE
- Joester (guest) 11-24-2003 7:16 am
I know. There's a scene in Tetsuo with a giant screw--drill more like--that does something...not very nice. Also, the hammer=Tetsuo II: Body Hammer. Oh, never mind. Did you guys make it to Yamagata?
- tom moody 11-24-2003 9:23 am
This is a little boring but...
In Japanese society, the work environment is about smoothness--and at all costs keeping a cool even head so things go well. Sometimes to keep things smooth it takes incredible tolerance and perseverence, which is released after working hours with food and drink--kind of a symbol of a time where honesty of feelings can be let off, usually through humor. It's a recuperating time. Everyone is at ease and often complains about the unreal demands made of them during a working day. This all takes place without the boss. You could say, the twist here is enjoying or reaping the benefits of the tasks demanded of them by their demanding boss, which were intended, or are sometimes felt to be only beneficial to boss. Everyone can laugh at this--
The Floorboards coming unstuck sounds like a breaking of a stereotype.
A friend from SF mailed this to me today--anyone get the ending?
"I saw this Japanese film (subtitled) yesterday called The Suicide Club. I think something was lost in translation because the ending didn't make a whole lot of sense to me."
So much for ends.
Tom, you should head on over here--I'm sure you would enjoy.
b
- anonymous (guest) 11-24-2003 4:39 pm
I don't remember that drill but I'll bet it was like some kind of ... cosmic ,,,, rebirth - along with pretty much everything else in that movie
- Joester (guest) 11-24-2003 6:29 pm
Joe: A glib Tetsuo summary is here, so I don't have to describe...the drill.
b: Many thanks--that's very helpful! I think what confused me is that Gotoh is such a cool, sympathetic character. He looks like Humphrey Bogart and always has a smart solution for everything. But of course, he's also the Boss and puts insane demands on the crew. With that in mind, their eating his "souvenir" is funny. After all, he wasn't the one who went to Sakata and risked death.
One of the things I love about the series is the "coolness, tolerance and perserverence" the characters show on the job, while in their off hours they're all really emotional: Izumi is childish and fixated on her lost dog, Otah is a rage-oholic gun nut, another character is a henpecked husband. Somehow, each episode, they have to pull it together and perform some really complicated task involving "big" technology that requires superhuman reflexes and calm nerves. I think a lot of this applies to the work-world in the States, but without the intricate "how-to" you get in Patlabor, showing how the machines actually function. The closest you might come here would be a spy show like Mission Impossible, with its gadgetry obsession, but then in that series you never saw a flawed Barney or Rollin Hand partying after hours and bitching about Jim Phelps.
- tom moody 11-24-2003 6:59 pm
Another thing I learned about the crew eating Gotoh's hatahata: In one of the earliest episodes, Shinohara explains that food, and food preparation, is kind of a fetish for the Patlabor crew. Their base is on a remote landfill on Tokyo Bay, and it's 45 minutes to the nearest convenience store, and even further to an actual grocery store. Thus, Hiromi grows tomatoes, the mechanics catch fish in the bay, and communal eating and cooking help pass the many boring hours between assignments. Against this backdrop, no way the sudden appearance of a box of hatahata wasn't going to get jumped on by all.
- tom moody 2-21-2004 2:00 am